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Marquez tops day one at Sepang

Published:
04 February 2014

Marc Marquez has started 2014 where he finished 2013, outpacing his rivals to finish over half a second faster than second placed Valentino Rossi after the first day of official testing at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit.

In 30°C temperatures, the world champion completed his fastest lap on 52 of 62, setting a time of 2:00.286, only 0.2 slower than his pole position lap last year for the Malaysian Grand Prix.Rossi was second, ahead of Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, with only 0.3 covering the trio, followed by the satellite Honda pair of Bradl and Bautista.

Aleix Espargaro was the shock act of the opening day of 2014, however, piloting his Forward Racing Yamaha to seventh ahead of the satellite Yamaha pair of brother Pol and Bradley Smith. Andrea Iannone was also ahead of the Tech 3 pair in eighth, well clear of both the official Ducati factory bikes and the test machine of Michele Pirro.

Cal Crutchlow was back in 14th, a worrying start to the Coventry man’s season, as the Bologna factory run a 2013/14 hybrid machine in an attempt to escape the front-end problems they’ve been plagued with.

Scott Redding had a slow start to his season too, back in 21st on the Go&Fun Honda as he adapts to the step up from Moto2.